New Hampshire Union Leader - Paul Looks To Boost Support, Slams D.C., Calls For Accounting

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By Dan Seufert

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul hammered his libertarian themes of limited government and protection of constitutional rights at a Grafton County "Defeat the Washington Machine" town hall Saturday, saying Washington beltway politicians don't represent the interests of the average American citizen.

Speaking at the American Legion Post 15, Paul told about 75 people that the federal government, including most Republican Party members and the other Republican candidates for President, "do not represent the Republicans in the country."

"Washington is so thoroughly out of touch," he said to loud applause. "We elected Republicans to run the House, and then to run the Senate, and it hasn't changed anything."

Paul, who has been near the bottom of New Hampshire polls, smiled while speaking critically of Granite State voters, who not only haven't supported his recent run for the White House, but haven't supported Republican candidates for President in the last two general elections.

"You guys didn't pull your weight, the last two times you voted for Obama," he said, drawing applause and a few chuckles.

But he held out hope that the polls will change in the coming months.

"Sometimes we think government is like American Idol, where you just press a button … and the presidential election looks that way right now. My hope is that as we go through the presidential (election) season, people will get more serious."

Sticking to his libertarian themes, Paul was critical of GOP frontrunner Donald Trump for his stance on the government's use of eminent domain laws.

"Trump is going around the country saying he loves eminent domain. He's been asked as soon as the last couple of weeks, does he support using eminent domain to take private property and give it to corporations, and he says yes," Paul said. "Some of us are offended by that idea … I don't think that's what our party is all about."

He was critical of lawmakers in both parties for their heavy support of foreign aid, "which is money that frankly we don't have."

And he was especially critical of lawmakers of both parties for voting against an amendment he introduced in the Senate to cut off aid to countries that persecute Christians.

"There are 25 countries that give the death penalty to converts to Christianity," he said, adding that his amendment was defeated with 18 votes against it and only two in favor.

He was asked if Washington politicians would ever be "held accountable" for their actions and inactions, especially with regard to the Veterans Administration scandal of 2014. He shook his head, no.

"We passed a bill to allow them to fire people over the VA scandal, and only one person was fired," he said.

He said a more egregious example of the lack of government accountability happened after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

"After 9/11 we gave medals to the head of the CIA and the head of the FBI, no one was fired, after doing an abysmal job. We had (one of the hijackers) a month ahead of time, and nobody looked at his computer. Nobody was ever fired over 9/11."

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